North Dakota · Law checked October 19, 2026

North Dakota tax sale: your deadline, your office, your money

Behind on property taxes in North Dakota? Your house can be sold at a tax sale — here's how much time you have to stop it. Your house was sold at a tax sale in North Dakota? The extra money from the sale may be yours to claim — and there's a deadline. Both answers are on this page, from the statute.

Count my North Dakota deadline

How North Dakota sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Redemption in North Dakota runs until the deed is issued — Until the foreclosure date in the auditor's notice — October 1 after service of the notice (the county acts once 2 or more years have passed since the tax became due). There is no redemption after the deed issues to the county Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: Delinquent taxes and special assessments + penalty + simple interest at 12% per year from the January 1 after the taxes became due + foreclosure costs.

Source: NDCC §§57-28-01, 57-28-02; §57-20-26

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: None found.

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): None found. (The homestead credit is a credit, not a deferral.)

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

No general owner surplus right found in North Dakota law. No owner surplus claim exists in the statute read: sale proceeds are apportioned like regular tax payments, and any remainder after all delinquent years are receipted is credited to the county general fund (NDCC §57-28-20). Your real remedy is the repurchase right while the county still holds title (§57-28-19): buy the property back for the lien amount plus later taxes — or the fair sale price if that is lower — in cash or on a contract for deed (25% down, up to 10 annual installments). Use it before the county sells to someone else.

Source: NDCC §57-28-20; repurchase §57-28-19

The county figure rule. This page gives you the law — the window, the formula, the office. The exact payoff or surplus figure lives in the County auditor's books and changes as interest runs. Ask that office for the figure, in writing, and keep the letter.

Included in the $49 TaxSaleDecoded Kit

  • The surplus claim pack: how to prove the house was yours (deed records, address history, ID), the claim-form path in your state, and what to do when the county says it has no record of your money
  • The redemption playbook: your state's window and cost formula worked step by step, who to pay, how to prove you paid, and the traps in the payoff figure (added fees and interest)
  • The heirs page: the house was a parent's — what changes, which papers prove you are an heir, and the point where it stops being simple
  • The scam shield: how surplus-recovery companies work, the fee caps your state sets for them, and the assignment papers you should never sign
  • The lookback module: what Tyler won, what Pung limited (the extra money is the sale price minus the debt — not your home's value), and the dated state lookbacks, including Illinois claims that die in July 2028

Get the TaxSaleDecoded Kit — $49

One payment of $49. No subscription. The kit is a web page you can return to and print — the claim pack, the redemption playbook, the heirs page, and the scam shield.

All 50 states · The surplus, explained · Redemption, explained